Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) has agreed to stop using kidnapping as a fundraising tactic if the current ceasefire with the government, declared in August and expiring on January 29, is extended. The announcement was made public this Sunday, at the end of a round of talks between both parties held this weekend in Mexico City.
The key point reached during the meeting is the suspension of “withholdings for economic purposes.” According to a joint statement published at the end of the meeting, the agreements reached during the meeting reaffirm the peace process and claim to establish the conditions for the extension of the ceasefire, something to which both parties have been in favor. In addition, the ELN promised to provide information about the 38 people who are still detained, but their release is pending.
This announcement allows us to overcome the crisis that the peace negotiations between the government and the guerrilla suffered last October, when the rebels kidnapped the father of Luis Díaz, Liverpool soccer player and star of the Colombian national team. They held him for 12 days before releasing him, while Díaz's mother was rescued a few hours later by the police.
The event was the last straw in a year in which kidnappings have reached a record since 2016 (when the Government and the former FARC signed the peace agreement), according to a report by the Peace Foundation.
"After critical moments in this process we have moved firmly towards peace with the ELN," said Vera Grabe, head and representative of the Colombian Government at the Dialogue Table at the closing of the fifth round of negotiations with the guerrilla, which began in 2017. with the government of Juan Manuel Santos and that Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist president and former guerrilla, promised to conclude in the spring of 2025. The head of the ELN delegation known as 'Pablo Beltrán', stated that the guerrilla and the Colombian Government They pursue the same goal: peace.
The achievements were celebrated by the highest representative of the UN Mission in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, who assured that the "United Nations will continue to accompany the process of transformations and consolidation of peace in Colombia." For Juan Fernando Cristo, former Minister of the Interior and peace negotiator with the FARC, the end of the kidnappings is
"a key advance that contributes to generating confidence in the peace process with that guerrilla."
Consolidating this progress depends on whether or not the ceasefire is extended, which President Petro declared on Friday will depend on how talks progress on ending the rebels' dependence on the illicit trade in cocaine and other products. , an activity from which the organization dissociates itself. Both parties, Government and ELN, have agreed to meet again in Cuba on January 24 for a sixth round of talks.
The ELN announcement is made known less than a week after the Central General Staff (EMC), the largest dissident of the extinct FARC guerrilla, announced that it is also ending a similar decision regarding kidnappings.
